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The National Aviary is America’s only independent indoor nonprofit zoo dedicated exclusively to birds. Located in right here in Pittsburgh, on the historic North Side, The National Aviary’s diverse collection comprises more than 500 birds representing more than 150 species from around the world, many of them threatened or endangered in the wild.

On July 1, 2017 The Aviary announced The Maker Challenge, a partnership with the Monmade, which is trade group for creative, maker-based entrepreneurs that we are a part of here in Pittsburgh and we were honored to be among the 18 chosen local makers for The Maker Challenge.

The Maker Challenge features one local craft business, maker enterprise, or entrepreneurial artist each month who have been hand selected to create new and exclusive products for their gift shop. Each Maker was assigned a particular bird and month in the Aviary to highlight the conservation struggles and efforts worldwide for that particular species.

Our month is March 2018 and our special bird is The Roseate Spoonbill, a wading bird of the ibis family with distinctive white, buff-yellowand pink feathers. Once common, the Roseate Spoonbill was avidly hunted for its plumagein the US to near-extinction in Mid-to-Late 1800s. Now returning and found in the coastal Gulf regions of the Southern US, as well as in the Caribbean, Central and South America.

Shown here (and the last photo below) are some of the illustrations and designs that we created exclusively for The National Aviary to carry in their gift shop, and available there through the summer of 2019. Our suite of products include prints of all 3 of the above illustrations in 2 standard sizes (8×10 and 114×14 inches), as well as greeting cards, tea towels and canvas tote bags too.

As a part of our Maker Challenge Month, Allison did a silkscreen print demo at the The National Aviary onto blank greeting cards of our new Peace Dove design that also double as a coloring page that both the little ones and grown ups can color, (or leave as is in striking black & white) to frame or to send to friends and family. If you are heading to The National Aviary in March, definitely drop by the front entrance gift shop and check out our Roseate Spoonbill exclusive pieces, as well as the items from some of the previous artists in The Maker Challenge!

Around these parts? Sometimes we have big announcements, and sometimes we have BIG ANNOUNCEMENTS.

This news counts as the latter. We have been hard at work for 4 months (and counting) on a dream project that’s really hard for us to believe even now is a reality. We are beyond honored, excited, thrilled and delighted to finally be able to share that we have been working with the iconic TODAY Show this year to create posters and identities for each and every one of the TODAY Show Toyota Summer Concert Series performances, broadcast live from Rockefeller Plaza all throughout the entire summer. This year marks the 20th Anniversary of the TODAY Show Summer Concert Series as well. And both of us being lifelong fans and viewers of The TODAY Show, it’s an amazing honor to be an official part of the show’s history.

Below are our posters for the first 8 of more than 20 musical artists who will play on The Plaza this year, with the designs that we created for The TODAY Show being given away to fans as posters, used as VIP pass art and t-shirts for VIPs on Rockefeller Plaza during the TODAY Show Toyota Summer Concert Series shows. We will be sharing each of the posters and designs that we created for each musical artist appearing in the Summer Concert Series throughout the rest of the summer both here an on our own Facebook Page, Twitter and Instagram accounts so you can follow us there, ask questions and learn more about this super fun project. And you can follow along with The TODAY Show’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts too for behind the scenes photos and videos as well.

Hooray! Summer is finally coming! After a very long and very cold Winter here in Pittsburgh, PA we were thrilled to have the chance to work on 2 warm weather illustrations for the Pittsburgh City Paper’s annual and invaluable Summer Guide. Above is the cover illustration and below is the pull-out section cover.

If you want to know what is going on in the 412 thiis Summer? Click any of the images here for the online Pittsburgh City Paper Summer Guide.

Popsicles UP. Winter hats DOWN yinz. We had a fun time working on these & we hope that you enjoy your Summer!

Our chilly, sled loving bird in the ChillyBurgh is an olde timey Steeler fan as he graces the cover. The issue came out Wednesday, January 15th and will be around for one week around the city. And there’s even a digital edition here too.

Covering arts, music, theater, dance, excercise and cool things to do all around the city the Winter Guide is loaded with information about the things that make Pittsburgh so darn awesome. Don’t miss the much anticipated Pittsburgh City Paper Winter Guide!

Our mountain-fresh design is hand screen printed onto charcoal grey super soft American Apparel Tri-Blend Track tees (our favorites!) in both Men’s & Women’s sizes, these t-shirts go perfectly hand-in-hand with the gorgeous new cover of The Spinto Band’s forthcoming new album Cool Cocoon (available February 5th in the US).

These shirts are available exclusively at The Spinto Band‘s website and from the band directly as a part of their special pre-order sale.

There’s a t-shirt in every for pre-order option too, so there’s a bundle for everyone. There’s even a free song download too! Check out all of the pre-order sale bundles below or visit The Spinto Band here.

Being born on a Friday the 13th, Allison takes a special delight in all things symbolically “unlucky”. And, being a bit of a bookworm, well, our smartie pants black cat here originally created for a poster that we did for Jackie Kashian’s CD release party seemed like a fun art print to create for Halloween 2012.

This art print is now available in our webshop here and also in our Etsy shop here. 3 colors, and all expertly hand silkscreen printed in our studio here in Pittsburgh, this print is ready to help you celebrate every day of the year. Bring a little backwards luck into your world with this erudite kitty cat.

Take note all those who love a great art & design deal: We’re working with our good friends at Fab.com and are having a brand new Sale at Fab! Our new Sale starts TOMORROW, Wednesday at 11am sharp 10/10 and runs for just 72 hours through Saturday morning 10/13 at 11am.

Just in case you aren’t familiar with the amazing Fab.com, or aren’t already a member, (and why not, it’s free-to-join!) here’s a quick run down on Fab.com. Ready? Ok!

Fab is Everyday Design.Our mission is to help people better their lives with design.Fab exists for one simple reason: To make you smile. Every day we set out to delight you, inspire you, make you laugh, and give you something to look forward to.

Fab.com is very specialty design sale website, meaning their curated partnerships with artists and designers last for just a few days at a time. With over 5 million members and a fresh set of new sales daily, Fab.com features great pieces for sale at substantial discounts.

With discounts from 25% – 40% off of our day-to-day retail prices, a strawberryluna Fab.com Sale is not to be missed! You won’t see these prices again for a long time.

Here’s the background story on this series: We have lots of Cardinals here all year round. I love looking out of my window and seeing their amazing scarlet red color jumping out from wherever they are, and whatever they are up to.

Size: Printed on 8.5″ x 11″ (21.6 cm x 27.9 cm) paper, image area measures 6″x8″ (15.2 cm x 20.3 cm). Designed to be flexible and fit an 11×14 sized frame with a matte as is, or you easily trim down the border area so that it can fit or 8.5 x 11 or 8×10 sized standard frame quite easily.

We’ve been falling in love with Pennsylvania Dutch and Swedish Modern designs lately. Their iconic and folk simplicity are so easy on the eyes. With a nod to a few things that we love, Morrissey, bird, folk-modern style, our Pennsylvania roots, and yes, the garden, we present our “Honey You Know Where To Find Me” art print in fresh, popping colors that play so well together.

Now that we are fully into the summer, it’s time to introduce our new sun-baked and semi-abstract, small art print, “Poppies”.

Bright, overlapping poppies waving together against a deep sun filled background. Two peas in a pod!

Playing with imaginary nature and abstract shapes is something we love to do. Every now and again a quick experimental sketch becomes something worth playing with further. This art print is based off of the illustration for our new Andrew Bird and Death Cab For Cutie poster, which you can see here.

Please note, this is a digital and giclee archival print (not a silkscreen print)
of an original illustration by strawberryluna. Each print is hand titled and signed.

Designed to be flexible and fit beautifully into an 11×14 sized frame with a matte, or you easily trim down the border area so that it can fit or 8.5 x 11 or 8×10 sized standard frame quite easily.

Los Angeles Renegade takes place on 7/28 and 7/29 in the Los Angeles State Historic Park, (aka The Cornfield) featuring hundreds of top artists and crafters showing and selling their handcrafted work. Just for you! We’ll have TONS of new prints and posters, as well and other goodies while vending and talking with lots of new and old friends. Renegade Craft Fair LA is not to be missed! Visit the awesome lists of artists here.

Renegade Craft Fair is always free to attend and full of super cool art, craft, lots of hands-on creative workshops by the Urban Craft Center, LA Zine Fest, and SideStreet Projects. Capture a memory with the free photo booth provided by Magnolia Photobooth Co. Music by DJs from KXLU, tasty treats provided by LA’s best food trucks and there will even be opportunities to take adopt a new furry friend via Second Acts Animal Rescue! And yes, plenty of adult beverages. What’s not to love?

“Be Kind Always”, so nice, we designed it twice. Both versions of “Be Kind Always” are sized at 12×12 inches, aka Record / LP frame size and are open edition, Indigo art prints in bright sky blue and lime green.

What we can say? Could be Allison’s Quaker school education showing, we just think life should be that simple. As humans, we might not always get there every day, but we believe one should always try. And here’s a friendly little cheerleader to remind you.

We decided to experiment with this design, and these two new art prints are Indigo prints, rather than silkscreens. Following a bolder and brighter illustration route than we could with screen printing we’re exploring a more modern printing technique by utilizing the Indigo press format. After all, screen printing is a lovely and ancient tradition, but we love having a foot in both the historic past and the ever-changing future at the same time whenever possible. With incredible detail & vibrant colors and archival inks and archival, eco-certified 100lb cover paper (see details below) we think you’ll love this addition too.

“Seabird” is inspired by Allison’s lifelong love of the sea and mixed with our fascination for feathered creatures, we think our influences show in this silkscreen art print. Always struck by the regal beauty of seabirds and their amazing 3-environment spanning lives in the air, on the land and in the water, “Seabird” is a silkscreen expression of that admiration.